We saw quite a bit for the first day in Turkey. The bus took us next to the Mercure Hotel where we were to spend the next couple of nights.Earlier Dilek continually warned us not to drink the water, but before I headed out to find one of the local stores for bottled water, we just rested in the room and watched the sun go down. Remy was a little tired so we went to the room and rested for awhile. From the window we had a good view of the buildings in the neighborhood. Many small mosques like this one came into view.

We had an excellent view of the busy Bosphorus Strait. Plenty of boats were going up and down the channel.

We rested a bit, then headed up to the roof where we expected to meet others from our group. The door to the outside was locked, but fortunately one of the hotel staff let us out and pointed out some of the sites. Within walking distance of our room is the Galata Tower. It is supposed to be one of the greatest views of the city from there, but we had a pretty good view from our room.

Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque were pointed out to us.

Back down in the room we watched as the sun dropped down. The lights of the cars crossing the Galata Bridge highlighted this feature. A Bridge was proposed as early as by Leonardo da Vinci in this area. A wooden bridge was built in 1863

As the sun continued to drop below the horizon, the colors on the sea began to come out. And when it finally set behind the buildings it was a huge orange ball.